


Back to Normal

by KissingLizard



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Injury, M/M, Minor Injuries, Post-Canon, Science Bros, canon divirgence - Doc didn't fall in love with Clara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-01 14:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8628505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KissingLizard/pseuds/KissingLizard
Summary: During a hot day, Doc's garage catches fire whilst Doc and Marty are inside. They escape just before the entire building explodes, but Doc is wounded. It is up to Marty to prevent this from happening, but he's on his own, and the DeLorean isn't readily available.





	1. Sticky Situation

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have a BETA-reader, so please forgive my mistakes.  
> Find me on tumblr: http://sillyyouandme.tumblr.com/
> 
> Concrit and comments greatly appreciated.

Sunday, May 11 - 1986

2.14 PM

 

California could get hot, who would've thought. Hill Valley was once a desert like all-natural area, Marty had seen so himself back in 1885. He was reminded of those dusty days today: sat in Doc's garage working his ass off. Doc had opened the garage doors wide open in an attempt to get a breeze through the sweaty workshop, but so far it hadn't worked. Around noon Marty had taken off his shirt and used it to mop the sweat off his forehead. Now, only a few minutes later his shirt lay forgotten on the floor. There wasn't a shirt big enough to mop up all the sweat Marty felt working its way down his forehead and shoulders.

Despite the sweat slowly working his way down Marty's hairline he kept working at a steady pace. With a screwdriver in hand and clear instructions from Doc, he had started taking apart the broken coffee maker they'd scored at a garage sale, for half a dollar only a few days prior. The parts that could be salvaged into whatever idiot plan doc could think up, sat in a neat pile to the left while the broken parts were thrown all over the floor to his right. There had been a trash can in that direction somewhere, or there was before Einstein decided to take it for a walk around the garage. The dog had left the trash can close to the corner where Einstein had then sprawled out on the concrete floor, to hot to continue moving.

Marty sighed and grabbed his already damp shirt from the floor and dabbed his forehead with it before getting back to work. Behind him, Doc stirred from his own work and got up. Marty only noticed his presence when Doc places his hand on the back of Marty's neck, his long fingers curling around the muscles that sat between his neck and shoulder. Doc's thumb lay against the base of Marty's skull.   
Marty took notice of the contact but continued his work. Doc's other hand grabbed hold of the table beside Marty's arm and he leaned over the teen's shoulder. A puff of warm breath moved the slightly too long hair in Marty's neck.

“There are more salvageable parts in that ancient thing than I expected.” Doc mumbled conversationally from behind Marty’s shoulder. “Take a break, grab a drink, you're going to overheat.” Doc moved back, and the sturdy hand on Marty's neck pulled away hesitantly.

Doc was already making his way through the messy garage to pull open the fridge when Marty put down his screwdriver and sat up straight, turning in the direction Doc had walked off to, just in time to catch the plastic water bottle Doc hurled at him from the fridge. Marty screwed the plastic cap from the bottle and took several gulps of cold water before pressing the bottle against his overheated skin.

Doc stalked back towards where Marty sat and pulled up the bar stool next to the teen and plopped down on it without grace.

Doc's Hawaiian shirt hung open exposing the thin undershirt he wore underneath. The man pulled his legs up to rest on the footrest, his knee pressing softly against Marty's thigh. Despite the heat, neither of them had chosen to wear shorts, and the contact felt warm to Marty despite the double layers of fabric between them. First, Doc finished an entire bottle of water in one go, gulping it down like a man lost in the desert, before he placed a second bottle on Marty's workbench. Doc hunched down to the floor, picked up and then pressed Marty's shirt against the teen's shoulder, urging him to take it. Marty did. He pulled the shirt over his head, suddenly self-aware of how close they were. Marty hadn't given a fuck about being in close proximity to Doc in ages, but with the big garage doors open and the windows exposing them to the street on the other side of the glass Marty felt like wearing a shirt was somehow important.

Despite this thought, Mart did groan when he found the shirt sticking against his back right away. Marty resisted the urge to pull the shirt from his skin and instead hoped he didn't stink too bad.

The bottle of water Doc had been drinking was crushed between Doc's hands whilst Marty put his shirt on, he then gracefully tossed the bottle through the garage. It landed where the trash can had been. Apparently, Doc hadn't noticed the dog decided the bin would be better of on its side a few feet away. He didn't seem to care either since he made no move to pick up and properly dispose of the bottle. It matched very nicely with the messy state the garage was in any way.

“I'm sorry Marty.” He began. Marty turned to his friend and quirked an eyebrow. “If I had known it would be this hot today I wouldn't have set you up for this job today.” Doc motioned to the coffee maker's remains on the table. “I get it if you want to quit and go home. We can always finish this another time.”

Marty took another swig of water while his friend spoke.

“Nah Doc.” Marty clasped the older Man's shoulder, ignoring how moist it was, even through the Hawaiian shirt. He was probably just as sticky as his dear friend.

“If I didn't want to be here I wouldn't be. I'll finish this up, but I'm not doing jack-shit after this is done.” He motioned in the work table's general direction.

“You know about this problem we have?” Marty suddenly asked. Doc simply raised his eyebrow as a response.

“We apologize to each other all the damn time, have you noticed?”

Doc thought about the teen's remark, way too seriously; like he always does.

“I think you have a point, Marty. Since we get caught up in a lot of sticky situations.-” Marty was suddenly aware of his sweaty shirt again. “I feel the need to apologize for the trouble I put you through.”

“Well stop it.” Marty said jokingly, with a serious undertone.

Somehow they seemed to reach a silent agreement. After a few thoughtful seconds Doc seemed to startle out of his own thoughts and changed the conversation's topic to the local news and a variety of sports. The duo held the conversation easily and could've kept it up for hours. They leaned back against the workbench together and sat, knee against knee whilst they spoke. Doc leaned in close to Marty in a comfortable slouch, and Marty hung back against the table, one leg casually swinging above the floor. Their elbows ended up so close together that the hairs on their arms connected, making Marty's skin tingle, but no skin-contact was made.

When the most recent events were spoken off, Doc jumped up from his stool. “Let's finish this work before I can't muster to get back to it anymore.” He got back to his own workbench: an old dining table that had once been beautiful, but since then it had been scorched and scratched up so much that the only way to find out what it's original color had been was to look at its hind legs.  
Doc picked up his welding tools and shot some quick-fire instructions to Marty who spun around on his stool and grunted in a way that conveyed to Doc that he'd understood.

A few moments later the garage was mostly silent again, once in a while a car drove by, and in the background, several dozens of clocks ticked away happily.   
Despite the silence, neither men heard the dripping sound in the back of the garage, followed by a metal object dropping to the ground and rolling through the garage, leaving a trail of liquid behind.   
The object, which had been a part of an invention stuffed in an old Pepsi can had reached the corner of the garage behind Doc. The shiny trail it had left behind: gasoline. Which had by then had been ignited by Doc's welding tools' sparks.   
A small flame followed the trail the can had left behind and reached the corner of the garage and the items that were stacked there. Starting a small, but quickly growing fire.

An odd sense of dread slowly overtook Marty. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. “Doc?” Marty called out to his friend, hoping that his response would settle his sudden anxiety. Doc grunted in response behind him, seemingly calm. Marty shook his head, he must be imaging things. “Marty?” Doc asked from behind him. The man had put his welding tools down. “Did you want to ask something?”

Marty turned on his stool “Nah Doc, I just-” Marty stopped speaking mid-sentence. The uneasy feeling suddenly explained. Behind Doc, in the corner, a flame was working his way up the wall and a fire was spreading from between several half assembled machines.

Marty jumped to his feet, eyes wide, and gasped. Doc looked at him with an alarmed expression that probably mirrored his own. Right when the scientist moved to turn and see what had alarmed his assistant, Marty found his tongue. “Doc! Fire!”

This simple statement alone was enough to spur both men into action. Doc looked at the flame for half a second before he turned back to Marty and hopped off his chair and over his workbench with a surprising amount of agility. “Marty, run! It's going to blow!”

Marty hadn't exactly known Doc was going to warn him of an explosion but he also didn't feel a sense of surprise when Doc screamed it at him. Marty gazed at his friend coming closer and suddenly time seemed to slow down.   
Marty's brain worked at top speed. He had no idea how long he had, but there were three things Marty felt he had to do.   
First, he had to get Doc out of this place. Doc so far seemed completely capable of doing this himself, the man was incredibly swift on his feet and his long legs could carry him further per step than Marty could even dream of achieving. Yet Doc wasn't running at the open garage doors, he was running towards him. His hand reaching out to grab Marty.

Just like it was Marty's number one priority to save Doc, Doc felt like he had to save Marty before he could save himself.

But before Doc could sweep Marty away, Marty reached for the wrench he had been working with and turned away from Doc. There was someone else in the garage that had to be saved. Einstein had been laying on the floor before, attempting to lower his temperature via the concrete, but when Marry turned to the dog he was already up on his paws, staring at Marty. The dog had noticed something was wrong, but he hadn't yet figured out what it was.   
Any other dog would've run off as soon as it had noticed a fire in the garage, but Einstein was so desensitized to fire, sparks and loud noises that it simply stood in the middle of the garage, staring the panicking humans down.

Marty took a second to settle on his feet, already sensing Doc right behind him. He lifted to wrench into the dog vision and flung it out the door as hard as he could. “Einie, get the Wrench!” What normally sounded like a playful term sounded like a panicked plea to his own ears, but Einstein followed the wrench out the door right away.

As soon as Marty let go of the wrench he set off towards the door himself, bumping over an entire table in the progress. Halfway to the door Doc had caught up to Marty and had grabbed him by the arm, together they ran into the street at full speed. It was at this point that whatever explosive components were in Doc's garage decided to give in and Marty felt himself getting pushed forward by an intense shock wave and a whole lot of heat. Behind him, Doc was pressed up against him and together they fell forward onto the tarmac.   
Marty was almost blinded by the light that engulfed him and Doc and for a moment he heard the loudest sound he'd ever heard before it faded, and the only sounds in his ears was a loud ringing and his own erratic heartbeat. He stayed pressed down onto the tarmac with Doc shielding him for what felt like ages before he pushed himself up from the ground and grabbed onto Doc.

Marty was aware of several things right away. The first was that he was hurt. The skin on his forehead stung and he felt warm blood sliding down his forehead.   
Aside from his face his hands were scraped up almost completely by the rough texture of the road and his knees hurt intensely, probably also scraped to shreds.   
The second thing he noticed was that Doc's garage was entirely on fire. The third thing he noticed was that something was very wrong with Doc. Marty's stomach sank as he cradled Doc in his arms. The man was covered in little lacerations and his forehead was bleeding profusely. His weight lay limply in Marty's arms and Marty was forced to place him on the street, not having the strength to hold onto him as he was.

Marty quickly looked Doc over, unaware of anything else happening around him. He shook Doc and screamed at him, but the man did not, could not, respond to Marty's attempts to wake him. Marty had lost all sense of time and at some point, he felt a pair of strong arms tug him away from Doc. From the other side of Doc other people came in and pulled him away from Marty's arms, Marty protested and struggled, but his limbs felt unnaturally heavy. In the end, his struggles made no difference at all. Someone tugged him away from Doc, away from the fire and away from the crowd that had gathered around them. When Marty finally tore his gaze away from Doc he saw that the street had filled with people, many looked at him with shock. A man, he might have seen somewhere before started speaking to him; asking him questions. Marty stared at him. He didn't answer.

Where he was forced to leave Doc behind was now a circle of people and from the sound of it, emergency services were arriving on the scene.

In the following minutes, Marty was taken into an ambulance and a young man with a friendly looking face had tried to take care of him. He wasn't badly hurt, only banged up, that was what that man had told him. Marty hadn't heard him though, he was living in a blur. It wasn't until he heard a familiar voice that he looked up from the point he had been staring at.

“Let me though, that is my brother!”   
His sister was working her way through the crowd. “Linda?” Marty had meant to shout at her to call her over, but he mumbled it instead.

Marty looked at his sister as she brutally elbowed her way through the crowd and pulled him into her arms. She spoke to him, but Marty didn't catch any of it. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Linda and pressed his face into her shoulder.  
Linda had never been one of the emotional McFly's, she was always tough as a rock. Because of this, Marty was surprised, in the fuzzy kind of way his brain was working right now, that his sister simply crushed him against her shoulder and held him. Marty had to close his eyes, the world was loud and sharp and his skin seemed to tingle. Everything that was happening around him was too much.

Marty closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had no idea how long it had been since he and Doc had sprinted out of the garage together. Every moment of his life seemed crystal clear in comparison with the last few...minutes? Hours? However long it was. In his head, he attempted to replay the moment: the heat of the explosion on his skin, the loudness and the constant ringing that hadn't quite subsided yet. And above all, the feeling of Doc's hand on his back, still there, like a phantom limb pressing down into his skin. That was where doc had pushed him, he had hit the ground and Doc was right behind him. If Marty could've stepped out of his own head and looked at that moment, suspended in time, from another perspective he knew, with all his being, that doc had saved his skin there. He took the blow for Marty like he had done so many times before.

Marty had tried to bring it up once, how thankful he was of Doc. The man wouldn't think about himself for a second before throwing himself into harm's way to save Marty. And Marty knew he would do the same for Doc.   
Because he and Doc are always there for each other no matter the situation. And this situation, Marty suddenly realized, was some serious shit. Doc hadn't been fine, and Doc was probably in big trouble and he was wounded. And Doc didn't have a sister that would fight herself through a crowd because Doc only had Marty. And he had to go help him, right now.

As if startled out of a dream Marty returned to reality and looked up. He hadn't registered anything that had happened around him for a while. He had been vaguely aware that he was sat down in the ambulance next to his sister and that he later had been guided into the Hill Valley hospital. People had looked and prodded at him and he had answered several questions. But he wasn't focused on the doctors and nurses, he wasn't focused on anything but the storm in his head. And because of this, he hadn't even realized that his mother was there, right in front of him.

She was pale and her hands were trembling but her eyes were clear and somehow furious. Marty stared at her for a moment, suddenly fearing the moment her eyes would turn to him. But when they did they softened and Marty was wrapped up in her arms tightly. Marty barely registered what his mother was saying to him, she spoke fast and strangely soft. He caught the gist of it, namely that the woman was so happy he was safe and alive and that she loved him so, so much.   
Marty looked up at his mother wondering how he could have ever been scared that his mother would be mad. He gently placed his hands on his mother's shoulder blades.

“I love you too mom.”

And this, apparently, was too much for Lorraine because tears started falling from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks, smudging her mascara and leaving a dark trail below her eyes. She pulled Marty closer to her chest and Marty's shoulders were awkwardly bunched up with the force of his mother's hold. From where his face was buried below her chin Marty looked around. Linda was still there, awkwardly eying him, in her hand, she held a paper cup, probably with tea in it. This time line's Linda enjoyed tea.

Linda stood next to the door and she turned suddenly when Dave and their dad stormed into the room. Dave wrapped Linda in a quick hug and stepped back. Marty tried to look at him clearly, but his mother had him in a tightly locked grip. All he knew from what he could see was that Dave had come here straight from work. His suit was slightly rumpled and his already ridiculously curly hair was strangely messy. He also was very pale and seemed to be discussing something very important with Linda already. Marty realized he was probably the subject of their conversation.

Along with his brother, his father had stormed in. Awkward on his long and lanky legs, he passed Dave and Linda without a second glance and pulled Marty from his mother's arms with a power that Marty had rarely ever experienced before. The last time his father had possessed such power was in 1955 when he had clocked Biff in the face to save his soon to be girlfriend. George pressed Marty to his chest and rubbed his shoulder with one hand.

“Oh son, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”

“I'm alright dad, really.”

Marty tried to sound reassuring, but his voice was raspy, and his throat felt suddenly dry. His father let go of him, luckily. His mother would've held him another 300 years if she had the chance. Marty attempted to pull himself back into the present and interrupted his parents as they spoke to each other with hushed voices.

“Mom, Dad? You gotta tell me Doc is alright.”

His parents fell silent, as did his siblings next to the door. His entire family turned to him.

“Marty,” Linda started, always the first to respond. “Doc almost blew you up.”  
She looked at him as if he was insane for even asking.

“Yes.” Marty agreed. No need to lie or fight them on that statement. “Yes, that happened and it was an accident, and he saved my life. You need to tell me if he's alright.” Marty felt like he was rambling, in reality, he was begging them for an answer.

“He- He was on the ground, and there was blood-”

“Marty-” His mother interrupted him sternly as if he had just sworn in front of his grandparents. “Doctor Brown almost killed you today. You are lucky to be alive.” She grabbed him by the shoulders again and Marty braced himself for another hug, but she didn't hug him. Instead, she stared him in the eyes intensely. Marty wanted to look away but he felt trapped by her icy gaze.

“He endangered you, and he shall be punished for his crimes. And you won't be seeing him again. Don't ask for him, Marty. He is no longer a part of your life.”

Marty felt his blood run cold. His skin tingled as if he was suddenly in the middle of a snow storm. His mother squeezed his shoulders as if what she had just said would've put his mind at ease. It hadn't.

“But he was wounded. I need to know he'll be fine.”

His father made to speak to him but was interrupted by a nurse that loudly and proudly declared that Marty wasn't injured and that the entire family could go home. The nurse spoke to his mother some more, discussing Marty's healing process. But Marty only looked for eye contact with one of his siblings, hoping they would tell him if Doc was alright or not. They didn't. Never before was Marty's questioning gaze ignored as intensely as now.

A moment later the entire Mcfly family sat in two cars back to their home. Marty asked about doc again but got no answer. Once home his mother fed him, Marty didn't eat. He took a shower and was tucked into bed as if he were a child. He lay awake after she'd closed the door, leaving him in the darkness. He listened to the voices around the house. His mother was on the telephone the entire evening.

Marty stared at his ceiling. His family wouldn't tell him if Doc was alright or not, but he had to find out. He tossed and turned for a while. Groaning when his limbs got more and more sore but eventually he fell into a deep sleep.

 


	2. Intrusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2/5.  
> Just like before, comments and concrit appreciated.

Monday, May 12 – 1986

7.00 AM

 

Waking up was never one of Marty's talents. He always woke up in some impossible position, tangled up in his covers. His bed was just so goddamn comfortable. This morning was even harder than usual. As Marty worked his limbs out of the tangled mess he had made of his bed covers he couldn't help but notice how incredibly stiff and sore he was. He wasn't actually surprised, he'd been in an explosion only several hours ago. He remembered how sore he felt for an entire week after his first trip to the past. but right now, remembering that didn't make it feel any easier for him to sit up in his bed. With a groan Marty pushed away from his mattress, his limbs felt like stone.

Marty was just reaching out for his alarm when his mother exploded into the room with an enthusiasm that only mothers can manage in the morning. Marty physically leaped in reaction to his mom's enthusiastic entrance.

“Marty, don't bother. You are staying at home today. The doctor said so yesterday: That you'll be hurting for a while, and that you might still be in shock.”

Lorraine started actually pressing Marty back against his pillow. Marty had the urge to fight her, but his body complied easily to his mother's guidance, despite his brain's signals not to lie back down. While his mom ranted on and on about how miserable a state he must be in Marty cleared his throat.

“Can you tell me if Doc is alright now?”

Lorraine stopped mid-sentence. Her arm still suspended in mid-air.

“I told you yesterday Marty, we do not discuss that man in this house anymore. Now get to bed.”

Marty watched his mother's expression turn very sour as she pushed him back into bed and tucked him in more tightly than was comfortable before she turned and returned to the door she busted though only a minute before.

“Sleep some more Marty, I'll wake you for breakfast in a few hours.”

“A few hours? Mom! What about your job?”

“Oh, Marty don't be silly. I can't focus on my job when my little boy is at home wounded after an explosion!”

For a moment Lorraine looked haunted by her memory's, but the emotions passed quickly.

“Get some rest Marty, you don't look so hot.”

She turned and softly closed the door behind her, leaving Marty trapped within his tightly tucked in blankets. Marty hadn't felt this much like a five-year-old in twelve years. Marty wrestled himself free of his covers and sat on the edge of his bed again.

Before Marty went back to 1955 his mother would never be this active in the morning, any other day he would celebrate his mother's improved state of living, but this morning he would've been very happy to simply walk out the house whilst his mother snoozed in her own bed.

Marty took his phone off the hook and pulled a tattered phone book from his bedside table. If his parents wouldn't tell him if Doc was alright, he'd have to find out by himself. After a quick search, Marty punched in the Hill Valley hospital's phone number and he waited for someone to answer.

Only a few seconds later he was greeted by a tired sounding voice.

“Hill Valley hospital, how can I help you this morning?”

“Um, Hi.” Marty started. He'd decided to call, but he wasn't sure how to go on now that he was talking to someone.

“I'm informing about Doc- Doctor Emmet Brown?”

A short silence followed

“I'm sorry sir, we are not allowed to share any information regarding Emmet L. Brown via telephone. Only family members are allowed information about the patient via official channels.”

Marty stared at his feet struggling to respond to this.

“I- but.”

“Have a very nice day sir.”

After this, all Marty heard was a harsh click before the phone told him the conversation was over.

Frustrated, Marty returned the phone to the hook and dropped back onto his bed. His parents wouldn't tell him, and now even the hospital wouldn't tell him if Doc was alright. “Well too fucking bad” Marty muttered aggressively at his closet. “Because I'm going to find out.”

After pulling some clothes out of the closet Marty paused. He realized now, that he was trapped in this house with his mom who was going to wake him in an hour or so for breakfast. If he left now, she would surely realize he'd run off. Marty dropped his jeans, which he'd just grabbed out of his drawer onto the floor and stepped back into his bed. He was stuck in this house till after breakfast.

Waiting till breakfast seemed to take forever, but after his mother had knocked on his door and told him to come eat, things picked up speed. Marty ate while his mother fussed over him and then he returned to his room. Upon entering he locked his bedroom door and got dressed quietly. Then he opened his window and slipped out. He'd snuck out at night many times, but sneaking out during the day was not as easy.   
Marty got down, close to the ground, and waggled around the house in such a way that if his mother were to look out of a window she couldn't see him. Once he reached the garden wall he hopped over it.

Marty was determined to visit the hospital, and he was ready to walk all the way there, so when he saw Dave's bike leaning against a wall next to the garage, Marty saw it as a sign from God, or whoever was up there. Marty took the bike, hopped on and started riding his way towards the hospital.

The hospital was surprisingly empty at 10.30 in the morning, so when Marty walked in he was immediately stared down by a grumpy looking 40-something nurse. Marty decided not to ask for Doc's room, realizing she wouldn't tell him. On the phone, they wouldn't even tell him if he was alive, so if a teenager asked for his room number there was no way they'd tell him. Instead, Marty rounded the corner toward the elevator and looked at the list of departments. Marty hopped into the elevator and stared at the row of buttons. Marty had no clue where to start looking. His finger hovered over a button as he gaped at the numbers. In his mind, he desperately tried to remember any info he had on this hospital from the few times he had visited here.   
Before he'd made a clear decision, two people walked up to the elevator. In a flash of panic, Marty pressed the button to the 3rd floor and stepped back. Just after he'd punched in the number a doctor and a nurse stepped into the elevator. They ignored him completely and continued their heated debate as if the teen wasn't even there.

“I'm telling you, doctor, the man may be elderly but he's started healing at an unusually high speed.”

“He was very active when he came in yesterday, I expected it to be a response to the shock from the blast, but everybody so far has been commenting on his active behavior.”

Marty stared at his shoes and listened closely. They had to be talking about Doc! Marty couldn't believe his luck, he thought things like this only happened in movies or television dramas.

“I did bring his updated file for you doctor. He is still on morphine but he's been talking to nurses. Not just nonsense either; actual topics, like the news.”

The nurse handed the doctor a clipboard which the doctor quickly scanned before turning his attention back to the nurse to continue their discussion.

Marty almost flailed in his attempt to read the papers on the clipboard. He went on his tip toes and squinted at the paper, but the letters weren't big enough for him to read from where he stood. When the elevator doors opened to let the medical duo out Marty could almost scream in frustration.   
They stepped out of the elevator and started walking. The only thing Marty could think to do was to follow them. Aggressively.

Marty pursued the couple and grabbed at the clipboard, toppling over onto the floor as he got close to the doctor and, by doing this, smacking the clip board out of the doctor's hands. It looked like an uncoordinated accident, a kid falling over his own feet, but when you are the youngest of 3 kids you learn of ways to reach stuff others don't want you to reach. The clipboard hit the floor with a smack and the nurse grabbed onto the doctor to keep him upright. Meanwhile, Marty slipped across the floor and ended close to where the clipboard had ended up. Quickly he hopped up and grabbed the clipboard.

“I am SO sorry! Are you alright sir?” Marty dusted off his jeans with one hand while his eyes scanned the clipboard.

Dr. Emmet Lathrop Brown – Room 317

Marty turned back towards the doctor, who looked more shocked than upset at what had just happened, and continued apologizing. The nurse turned to him with a kind smile. Marty tried to look as apologetic as possible, hoping the nurse wouldn't catch onto the fact that Marty wasn't the type to fall over randomly.   
Luckily, Marty had his boyish charms and nurses, like moms, fell for his innocent and young act like nobody else. The woman probably thought of him as a kid and Marty was going to use that to his advantage.

“the floor- and I wanted to hurry. I'm very sorry.” He stammered. His flustered state was only an act, but stuttering and stammering made him look more pathetic than he already felt.

“That's quite alright young man.” The nurse answered while the doctor accepted the clipboard back from Marty.

“Are you alright? That was quite a fall.”

“Yeah, I'm alright.” Marty supplied “I'll be fine. But eh- Where is the closest bathroom?”

The nurse pointed it out to him politely and Marty quickly set off towards it. Once in there he got into a stall and locked the door behind him. He knew where Doc was, and he also knew he seemed to be doing alright-ish. Marty plopped down on the toilet bowl he was planning on using as a chair and sighed. Doc was alive, and Marty was hell-bent on seeing him with his own eyes.

The doctor and nurse had probably been on their way to Doc and Marty couldn't exactly just walk into the room with them. Marty decided to just sit on a toilet and wait a while.

After what felt like an eternity, but was only a couple of minutes, Marty silently escaped from his stall and peeked into the hallway. Two bickering nurses were pushing a trolly into a room, but aside from them, the hallway was completely deserted. Marty slipped into the hallway and started walking towards it in a way he hoped mimicked confidence.   
Finding room 317 wasn't hard.

Marty reached for the door knob and paused. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Last time he'd seen doc he'd been knocked out cold on the ground. He'd seen blood and then he was pulled away from him. Marty slowly released the breath he'd been holding and opened the door slowly. He took a moment to listen, but the room was silent.

Marty stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him. When he looked up he saw Doc.  
Doc was hooked up to one of those water bags that hung from a hook, his other arm was bandaged up and his face was adorned with several bandages and even more scabs, a line of stitches was crafted across his forehead.

Doc's eyes were closed and he looked very calm. Marty decided that moment that 'calm' was not a good look for Doc.   
Despite all that, he looked better than Marty could have hoped for. Carefully, Marty snuck towards Doc's bed. He didn't know why he was sneaking since Marty was planning on waking Doc up, but as he stood next to Doc's bed he had to take a moment to just look at the man.

A sudden wave of emotion hit Marty and he gently took Doc's hand. Marty just wanted to look at his face for a moment but this became way too goddamn difficult as his vision became blurry with unshed tears.

“Oh Doc, I'm so sorry. Shit.” He mumbled at the scientist's face. His free hand softly cupped Doc's face. “You could've died.”

“Marty?” Marty blinked then, the tears obstructing his vision rolling down his cheeks. Doc was looking at him, the look in his eyes gentle and slightly glassy.

“Marty, you're here?” Doc's voice was soft, way softer than Marty was used to and raspy, but he spoke clearly. The tone of his voice was full of wonder as if the man couldn't believe his eyes.

“I snuck in Doc. They wouldn't let me see you.”

Doc squeezed Marty's hand reassuringly, but softer than Mart had grown accustomed to.

“Marty are you alright? The explosion, and you. You saved my life.”

Doc's eyes became comically large for a moment before he looked back up at Marty, suddenly more aware than before. “You saved my life.” He repeated, but softer.

Marty nodded “I'm good Doc, just a little stiff. We are in some serious shit Doc. They're going to lock you up.”

“I know Marty. We've fucked this up.”

“We can fix this Doc. This isn't the biggest mess we've ever been in.”

Marty changed his grip on doc's hand and moved the hand that was cupping doc's cheek to rest on his shoulder instead.

Touch had always been easy between them, but in times of crisis Marty seemed to stick to Doc like glue, and Doc, likewise, always seemed to situate himself close to Marty to be stuck to. Doc leaned into Marty's touch slightly.

“You can't stay long Marty, the nurse will be back any minute now.” Doc eyes caught his. “Listen carefully. We need to find out what caused this explosion and prevent it from happening. I'm afraid I won't be of much use to you Marty. There were several objects in my garage that might've caused the explosion.”

“How do I start Doc?”

“This might take some time Marty. The police is probably investigating the scene, I mean my garage. Perhaps they already know what caused the fire, but I doubt they'll tell you.”

“They wouldn't even tell me you were alive.”

This made Doc pause for a moment, he squeezed Marty's hand again, harder this time. The look in his eyes told Marty he understood how Marty had felt. Doc's brown eyes swept over Marty's features, stopping on each wound and scab shortly as if he could wish them away by making puppy-dog eyes at them. After Marty's face was scanned for injury Doc's eyes returned their gaze back to Marty's, so blue he felt like he could drown in them. Doc took a deep breath.

“I'm not leaving you, Marty.”

Marty wanted to answer Doc, tell him he would always be there for Doc as well. But he couldn't seem to find his voice. He'd watched Doc's eyes glide over his face. Marty knew Doc blamed himself for every one of the cuts and scrapes on his face. He could see the blame Doc put on himself in his features. All Marty wanted was to press his lips against Doc's and wash the self-blame away. But just as Marty made to move closer to Doc the man found his senses and clasped Marty's arm.

His eyes refocused on Marty's. His moment of self-reflection was over.  
“Listen closely, Marty. There is a lot that has to be done.”

Marty pulled his eyes back to Doc eyes and nodded.

“What's the plan, Doc?”

“Keep an ear open for any news on the cause of the explosion. If we're going to prevent this event from happening we'll need to know what caused it. I remember the flame starting in the south corner of my garage. But I didn't take the time to figure out what had started the fire.”

“How do you expect me to figure this out Doc?”

“Find any info you can. It could help you when you go back to prevent the explosion. If you can't figure out the cause in the present, you'll have to piece it together in the past. Find the DeLorean, I've stashed it in my off-site workshop but the police might confiscate it soon. You remember where that is right?” Marty was about to answer the man, but he was already rambling on. Marty feels like he should've brought a notepad to take notes on all these instructions, but at the same time, his mind was so clear now, that he could see the creative juices flowing through Doc as if he wasn't in a hospital bed. Marty felt as if he was recording this conversation with a camcorder that he would be able to rewind at any moment.

“I'm afraid I don't have any keys for you Marty, but not having a key has never kept you out of my place before.”

Marty chuckled, catching the reference to their first meeting in Marty's original time line. At hearing Marty's response to his little joke Doc felt his entire body relax.

“You have no idea how good it feels to see you smile again Marty.” Marty finished his chuckle with a soft snort and looked back up at his pal. Doc was smiling back at him. Marty's smile softened as he looked at Doc's face. The man's face seemed to have an aversion against being symmetrical, even now his smile was more prominent on the left side of his, yet his entire face was awash with the little shared moment of happiness.

“I have one last task for you, Marty, I need you to find Einstein, he might be out on the street, or the police might have taken him. I need to know he's safe.”

“Doc, I-”

Marty froze mid sentence. They were speaking softly the entire time and because of that, Marty heard at least two people walk up to the door. Doc's face projected about as much panic as Marty's. Quickly Marty disentangled his hands from Doc, dropped to the floor and rolled underneath the bed.   
Once underneath it, he made himself as small as possible, up against the wall. The hospital bed wasn't as low to the ground as he would've liked but judging by the feet calmly stepping into the room he wasn't spotted.

While the people the feet belonged to were busy with Doc above him, Marty focused all his energy on sitting still and calming down his heartbeat, which was thundering in his chest. So far Marty hadn't been seen, but even the slightest mistake on his part could tell the people attached to the feet where he was hidden.

Curled up tight on the floor, leaning back against the wall Marty focused on breathing calmly and not moving. Not moving was a lot harder than he expected it to be. Suddenly the open scrapes on his knees itched and ached, his hair was in the way, and he felt like stretching his legs. Despite his sudden nervous discomfort, he didn't move a muscle till he heard the conversation above him die down. The shoes Marty could recognize anywhere from now on turned and moved across the hospital floor till they'd walked past the door, and the door closed behind them with a soft click.

Both Doc and Marty stayed still for several seconds before Marty slowly crawled from underneath the bed again. Doc and Marty stared each other down several more seconds, before determining the hallway was silent.

“That was way too close.”

“I'm sorry to say this Marty but you should probably leave.”

“You gave me plenty to do Doc, I'll keep myself busy.”

“After you leave this room it might be a long time before we get to speak again. They plan on moving me out of here soon.” Doc look apologetic. “I'm afraid I can't assist you from now on.”

“That okay Doc.” Marty huffed “At least I know where to start.

Doc reached out and grabbed Marty by his arm and pulled him closer.

“Before you leave Marty-”

Marty leaned into his touch and put his hand back on Doc's shoulder

“You don't have to apologize for anything Doc. We discussed this yesterday, remember?”

Doc shut his mouth and sought out Marty's eyes again, Marty looked back into his.

“I feel like I do, Marty.” The hand holding onto Marty's arm grabbed onto the fabric of his Jacket and urged him closer. Marty looked at the door quickly before he turned his head back to Doc, leaned down and pressed his lips down onto Doc's gently. Doc's lips were a lot drier than Marty was used to, but their gentle pressure was comforting. The hand with which Doc had grabbed Marty's jacket pulled at it. Marty breathed out through his nose, not wanting to break the kiss.

In a moment of impulse, Marty opened his lips and licked Doc's lips, curing their dry state for a moment before he pulled back. Doc's lips chased his for a moment before Marty heard Doc breathe in deep.

Marty's eyes had fallen shut, and when he opened them again he could see Doc's opening as well. They held eye-contact for a moment. Doc's grip on Marty's jacket going slack and the hand Marty had placed on Doc shoulder pulled back hesitantly.

The contact only lasted a few seconds, but by the time Marty managed to tear his gaze from Doc's eyes his heartbeat was thundering in his ears again. He tugged his Jacket back in proper order and stood up straight.

“You should go.” Doc sounded almost as raspy and breathless as he's been when Marty had just woken him. Marty nodded and mumbled in agreement.

“Good luck, future boy.”

Marty squeezed Doc's hand one final time and then stepped back towards the door.

“Take care Doc. I'm going to fix this.” Marty even surprised himself with how much confidence he put into this statement. But as he turned to peek into the hallway he realized that just like in 1955, he had no choice. He had to succeed, or his life as he wanted it to continue was over.

After a quick look into the hallway, Marty found it empty and he slipped out the door. Before he closed the door he glanced at Doc one last time, who gave him a thumbs up, afraid to speak in case someone might hear them now that the door was open. Marty waved at him, feeling extremely lame while doing it, and closed the door behind him. Closing a door wasn't supposed to be this hard, but not knowing if and when he would ever see Doc again made the door feel like it was made out of solid, unmovable steel. Marty felt his heart sink as he pulled at the thin wooden door, but he pressed on.

A soft click signaled that the door was closed and Marty started walking back towards the elevator. On his way there, he crossed paths with several people, but he just kept on walking and before he knew it he pressed the button, the door opened and Marty stepped into the elevator to take him back down towards the lobby.

Marty stared at the door as the elevator started its slow descent down. His mission had been successful, he'd found Doc. Marty licked his lips, they still tingled with the contact he'd made with Doc's. Marty realized he was smiling, but he was almost afraid to since there was so much left to do.


	3. Find Einstein

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed Marty and Jennifer's relationship: they are best friends. They are still extremely close.  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter.
> 
> I don't have a beta-reader so please tell me if I've made any (big) mistakes!

Monday, May 12 – 1986

11.13 AM

 

It wasn't long after eleven when Marty found his way back to the hospital lobby. He waved at the lady in the nurse's station and quickly made his way out the front door. Even though he wasn't caught, Marty was sure the nurse has her suspicions, the way she squinted at him was tell-tale.   
Once Marty was back outside he sat himself down on a bench and checked his watch out of habit.

Marty leaned back in his seat and sighed. Seeing Doc had settled his nerves. Knowing your best friend, more than best friend isn't going to die tends to do that. But Doc was right, if they didn't fix this Doc would soon be in jail and Marty would never see him again.  
Doc had given him many vague tasks to complete, but one of them was crystal clear: Find Einstein.   
This task Marty felt he could handle. Thinking back to the explosion Marty clearly remembered getting the dog out of the garage, but during and after the blast Marty had lost sight of him Luckily for both of them it had only been one night since he's last seen the dog. Einstein couldn't have gotten far unless he was taken by animal control.

After stiffly getting up from the bench, Marty decided that looking for the dog close to Doc's garage would be the best course of action. He grabbed Dave's bike, hopped on and cycled towards KFC at an even pace. As the burger king came in sight Marty realized people were watching him.   
Most people down this side of town had at least seen Marty with Doc before, and because an explosion tends to be big news in a town as Hill Valley he felt like a bit of a spectacle. Normally Marty wouldn't mind, but searching for the dog of the crazy scientist that almost blew you up wouldn't be as easy with people breathing down his neck. Marty quickly made a decision and took two left turns, sending him toward his own high school. Once there, he threw his bike against a tree and waited twenty minutes for the bell to ring and for lunch to start.

Walking into the cafeteria had never been like this: once he stepped inside, a silence spread across the room and several hundred of teenagers and several adults stared him down. Wherever Marty looked, he was making eye-contact with someone and _boy_ , that was unsettling. Luckily he didn't have to stay long because the person he came in looking for rushed towards him.

Marty was disqualified from his staring competition with an entire cafeteria when Jennifer ran up to him calling his name. Marty took her by the arm and started guiding her to the exit “Jennifer, I was looking for you, I-” Marty hesitated, deciding it wouldn't be smart to tell an entire cafeteria he had spoken to Doc. “Let's get some fresh air, okay?”  
Jennifer followed, bombarding Marty with questions till Marty found a spot that was secluded enough that he let go of Jennifer's arm and turned towards her.

Before he could speak Jennifer had captured Marty in a tight hug.

“You have no idea how glad I am to see you.” After a few more seconds Jennifer let go of her best friend. Marty felt guilty when he saw how shiny Jennifer's eyes had gotten. Marty never wanted to make anyone cry, especially Jennifer. Before she could talk again Jennifer angled her chin up and blinked a few times, once she felt composed she looked back at Marty. “You aren't supposed to be in school, and I know that any chance to not come here is good enough for you.” She paused for a moment, her eyes searching Marty's. “So whatever you are up to, it can't be good.”

A lopsided smile spread across the young woman's beautiful face.

“Whatever it is, I'm in.”

Marty smiled back at her and wrapped one arm around Jennifer's waist, pulling her close for another hug. “Have I ever told you that I know this girl? That girl is the best friend a guy could ever ask for.” Jennifer snorted and pushed Marty away playfully.

“Lay it on me McFly.”

“I saw him, just an hour ago.” Marty admitted and Jennifer stared him down in surprise.

“You broke into his room!” It wasn't a question, it was an accusation.

“Well, yeah.“ Marty admitted, “He's going to be fine Jennifer, but we need to fix this mess.” Marty's tone was softer than Jennifer's had been, urging her to also speak at a low volume as to not alert anyone of their presence.

“Mess? Marty, you almost got blown up! Look at you, you're hurt.” Jennifer started fussing with Marty's hair, wiping it out of his face and inspecting the scrapes and cuts on his forehead. Marty felt like pushing her away, telling her he was fine. But the look in her eyes had him stop mid-motion. Instead, he just took her hands and squeezed them.  
“I'm alright Jennifer, I really am. But I do need your help. I have got to find Einstein.” Jennifer looked up from her hands and at Marty's face.  
“After what happened yesterday I haven't seen him, someone needs to take care of him. And that someone is me.”  
“You're mom is going to be so pissed.” Jennifer didn't even know about what specifically Mrs McFly would be pissed anymore: everything? Probably. “Does she know you're here?”

Marty shook his head.

“I climbed out of the window, she hopefully still thinks I'm sleeping.”

“She won't let you keep Einstein.”

“I don't care, I just need to find him, know he's alright.”

Jennifer's response to that was swallowed by the high pitched ring of a school-bell. Marty let go of one of Jennifer's hands and started walking towards the nearest exit. Jennifer followed without another word. They walked out the school quickly, avoiding the teenagers that were slowly starting to fill up the hallway. Once outside Marty grabbed Dave's bike from where he left it and got on, Jennifer hopped onto the back of the bike and together they rode off. Jennifer checked behind her, and though there were plenty of people watching them leave, nobody made a move to stop them from skipping school.

“My dad's not going to be happy when he hears about this.”

“Your dad can eat it”

“Marty!” Jennifer didn't seem mad or offended by this rude remark, only pleasantly surprised.

“If you get in trouble just tell him I needed you. It's not even a lie.”

Jennifer agreed and wrapped her arms around Marty's waist as he sped up.

“That's what we're friends for, right?”

Jennifer felt Marty's chuckle before she heard it. “Yeah.”

“Marty?”

“Yeah?”

“How's doc?”

 

\-----

After a short but chatty bike ride, Marty dropped the bike next to the Burger King and he turned towards the remains of doc's garage. Seeing the remains, no longer smoldering, but black and dirty filled Marty with a strange sense of dread. There really wasn't much of the garage left. The structure was partially collapsed. The corner of the garage farthest from the road, where Doc's main living space was had collapsed and the walls had been blown out. The roof lay on top, crumpled as if it was a piece of paper. The front of the building was black with soot and rubble and sharp shards of glass were still spread out on the street. The door, that had been open at the moment of the explosion hung only partially in the door frame and the wall next to it was filled with large holes. Inside the building, Marty saw remains of items and machines, almost all unrecognizable. Punctured through a wall was what Marty recognized to be his favorite armchair, which was apparently blasted from the far side of the garage to the front.   
Marty swallowed thickly, that wasn't a lightweight chair, and if Marty had been where that chair had been only moments before all this- Marty chose not to finish this thought. He was alive, Doc was alive. They were both alive. But any hope of sneaking in and finding anything useful was gone.

Next to the remains of the garage were the remains of Doc's truck, it had been blasted on its side and though the truck hadn't been actually white in years, it's color was closer to grayish black now than it's original color. The truck had several windows left, but they were all so cracked up you wouldn't be able to see anything through them. The two tires that were facing skyward had been on fire for a long time and hung limply on their axis.

Jennifer, seemingly sensing Marty's inner conflict stood closer next to him.

“There really isn't much left.”

“It was a magnificent explosion”

Marty glanced at Jennifer and then back at the collapsed building. A large circle of tape surrounded the property.

“I hadn't realized-”

“Marty, you never realize how much danger you are in. You could have died yesterday, you probably would have if it weren't for Doc.”

Marty swallowed thickly and shook his head.

“Let's go find Einstein.” He started walking in a random direction, and Jennifer took that as a cue that the conversation was over.

It took a few hours and some asking around, but around two in the afternoon they found Einstein. The dog was dirty and upset. But when he realized it was Marty calling his name he ran into the teen full speed, licking his hands, jumping up at him and whining. Marty and Jennifer spend the first few minutes of their reunion petting the dog, feeding him a ham sandwich and calming him down before the dog was behaving a little like himself again. Getting him to follow Marty and Jennifer back to the McFly residence wasn't very hard. When they got close to Marty's house things got more complicated.

Marty had known he was going to bring the dog home, but he hadn't decided how to do it yet.

“I guess I'll have to hide him from my family, at least for tonight.”

“You're mom's home, there is now way we can take him through the front door.” Jennifer added, looking at the car in front of the house.

“My bedroom door is locked from the inside. I guess we'll have to take him through the window.”

“How are we going to get this dog over the fence?!”

Marty shrugged and walked over to the garden wall. “Just follow my lead?” He turned towards Jennifer who sighed and shrugged as well. “I hope your plan works, McFly.”

Jennifer hopped the fence as silently as possible as per Marty's instructions, she wasn't as skilled as Marty at it, but it was done well enough to not catch anyone's attention.

Marty knelt in front of Einstein.

“Be silent alright?” The dog just stared him down and angled his head. Marty decided to take that for what it was and lifted the dog off the ground. Einstein wasn't fat, but he wasn't a small dog either. Since the dog hadn't been lifted from the floor since he'd been a puppy he wasn't entirely comfortable being picked up off the ground, Doc had trained the dog in such a way that it would be able to do pretty much anything by itself. Climbing a five-foot fence wasn't one of those things though.

Marty repositioned Einstein in his arms and awkwardly started climbing the trash can, the dog wasn't a big fan of this but stopped his whining when Marty shushed him.

After some awkward climbing and hopping, Marty dropped the dog over the garden fence to be caught by Jennifer, who toppled over under the dog's weight. She grumbled at first, clearly unhappy to be knocked off her feet by an upset dog but she was soon smiling again as Einstein started licking her face, enthusiastically. Getting Einstein away from Jennifer without talking or yelling wasn't easy, but Jennifer managed to get up off the grass fairly quickly and with only a limited amount of dog-drool on her face and hair.

Next, the three of them slowly, silently and low to the ground crawled up to Marty's window. Marty hopped in first, pulled up Einstein and then made space next to the bed for Jennifer to crawl in as well. Marty had never thought of his bedroom as small, but with two people and a pretty big dog in here it was very cramped. Marty and Jennifer looked at each other in silence, listening for Marty's mother in the living room. She was moving about, but she didn't seem to have noticed them crawling in.

“You think she noticed you were gone?” Jennifer whispered.

“I hope not, but I guess we'll have to find out.”

Marty knelt down and shoved Einstein half under Marty's bed and ordered him to stay down. He didn't really have to do that because the dog seemed content to lie down on his carpet and catch a couple of Z's. Jennifer sat down on the bed and sighed.

“I'm going to leave soon, I promise. Just gimme a moment.” Jennifer rubbed her eyes and tucked her hair back, she looked almost a tired as Marty felt.

“You don't look so good Jen.”

“You try sleeping after you find out your best friend was in an explosion.” Jennifer responded with a surprisingly big amount of humor. “I should have known I'd be running through town with you the day after.”

“I'm sorry Jennifer.” Marty mumbled and sank down on the mattress next to her.

“My dad got called in by the police station almost immediately after it happened. I overheard the address and knew you were with Doc. I was ready to run the entire way there, but dad ordered me to stay at home. He promised me that he would call as soon as he knew if you were alright. The half hour between him leaving and the phone ringing was the most terrifying thirty minutes of my life.”

Marty placed one arm over Jennifer's shoulder and pulled her close. She turned her head and smiled at him. “I was so scared I'd lost my best friend. And now here we are, saving dogs already.”

Jennifer looked like she was about to say more, but Marty almost slapped her in the face in an attempt to shut her up when he heard footsteps coming closer to the door.

“Marty? Sweety? Is that you talking? Are you dressed?”

Only a second later the doorknob started to move as Lorraine attempted to open the door. Jennifer shot up from the bed in a panic and flailed her arms at Marty.

“One moment mom, I'm not dressed” Marty shouted at the door, his voice cracking with poorly disguised panic. Marty grabbed Jennifer and shoved her behind the door and quickly took off his shirt, shoes, and jeans. In any other situation, he would be embarrassed undressing in front of Jennifer like this, but he was too caught up in the moment to really care. He grabbed his pajama pants of his bed and hopped into them as quickly as possible before he opened the door halfway.

“Mom?”

“Oh sweetheart, I didn't wake you did I? I thought I heard you talking.”

“that-ah. That was the radio. I was just getting out of bed.”

Marty tried to casually keep his door mostly closed, prevent his mom from seeing Jennifer and Einstein in his room, but his mom seemed pretty happy to push against the door and Marty didn't have that much strength right now. So Marty stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him, hoping his mom didn't catch the strange noises coming from his room.

“I was..eh. I want to eat something. I haven't even had lunch yet.”

Like the mom she was, Lorraine swept Marty up and ushered him into the kitchen. In the following minutes, Marty was force fed a sandwich by his mother as she happily babbled about all the friends and family that had called that morning to wish him well.

After that forced and awkward conversation with his mom which was filled with lies about his nap, Marty excused himself back to his room where he found only Einstein. The window was still open and Jennifer had left through it. Next to his phone, he found a note telling him to call in the evening. Marty locked his door behind himself again and sank to the floor. He petted Einstein some more and then moved to his bed, taking that nap he was supposed to have taken that morning.

He woke several hours later to have dinner but didn't eat much. He did, however, bring Einstein some food and water and then laid back on his bed. He turned on his radio and stared at the ceiling. Without realizing it, he fell right back asleep. When he woke again it was because was his phone was ringing.

After startling awake, he took the horn and brought it to his ear. “Jennifer? Sorry, I fell asleep.”


	4. Breaking and Entering

Monday, May 12 – 1986

10.15 PM

 

“Jennifer? Sorry, I fell asleep.”

“That's alright Marty, I took a nap myself.” Jennifer's friendly voice crackled from the other side of the line.

Marty lay his head back down on his pillow and placed the receiver on his face.

“I hope you didn't wait for me in my room this afternoon.”

“I know your mom Marty, I took it as the perfect chance to sneak out. Is Einstein still being a good boy?”

“Yeah, he is. He did crawl onto my bed when I was asleep.”

“Doesn't sound like a bad thing.”

“Accept that I smell like dog now.”

Marty curled the phone cord around his finger and looked at the dog that had situated himself on the end of his bed. Einstein looked back at him, blinked and rolled over. The dog wasn't used to such peaceful surrounding and he seemed to be enjoying it while he could.

“How long do you plan on keeping him in your room?”

“I'm going to walk him tonight, I'll look for an alternative then.

“He's a good dog, but hiding a dog this big, in a room as small as yours isn't going to work out for longer than a day, max.”

Marty sighed “yeah I know.”

The phone line was silent for a few seconds while both teens tried to come up with a solution to this problem. Marty wasn't actually planning ahead though. He was planning into the past. He shouldn't take Einstein with him to the past; the dog could run into itself. But Einstein couldn't stay in Marty's room alone either. He would make enough noise to alert someone in the house and be kicked out. Marty's only option was to take Einstein for a walk tonight and attempt to get his hands on the DeLorean then.

“Jennifer? Is your Dad still working on the explosion?”

“Yeah, most of the police force is. Dad won't tell me jack shit about it though if that is what you're after.”

“I want to know what caused it. I saw the fire when it was still small, but what made the joint burst..I'm not sure.”

“I won't be much help. All my dad said when he came home was: 'that nutcase had more illegal stuff in his house than I could even imagine.'” Jennifer mimicked her father's voice by making him sound like a grumpy Santa, it worked surprisingly well.

Marty sighed “I can't say that I didn't already know that. But thanks for the info.”

“I tried to bring it up during dinner, but you know how cops are. He wouldn't feed me any info.”

“I actually try to stay away from cops as much as possible.” Marty shared. “My best friend owns a lot of illegal shit.”

Jennifer snorted on the other side of the line. “I had to act as if I was surprised during dinner. I've been in there, I've seen all his crazy shit and I know they don't put that many warning stickers on legal stuff.”

“If anyone asks, I didn't know and I've never touched any of that stuff.”

“You are only his dog walker,” Jennifer said. It sounded as if she'd said it thousands of times before. She probably had.

“huh? What's up mom?” Jennifer said, lips no longer close to the phone. Marty turned on his bed, taking the receiver from where it had been resting on his face. Jennifer's mom had a habit of interrupting their phone calls.

When Jennifer returned to their conversation Marty could practically lip-synch the lines Jennifer spoke next.

“I'm sorry Marty, I got to hang up. But mom says hi.”

“Tell her hi back. Thanks for calling.”

“Always Marty, I'll call again tomorrow after school.”

“I'll be waiting.” Marty smiled as he said it and he waited for Jennifer to end the conversation before he put the receiver back down.

Marty stayed still for a minute and listened for any sound around the house, everybody appeared to still be awake and active. It wouldn't be smart to try and sneak out with four sets of eyes and ears around, so Mart decided to wait another few hours to sneak out. How he was going to amuse himself for another few hours he didn't know. Normally he would go watch TV, but with Einstein in his room, he didn't dare to leave the dog behind. Marty's room was close to the living room, which means noises he made in this room were audible to people in the living room and kitchen.

Marty picked up his guitar and plucked at it for a while, playing some simple tunes and song he'd known for years. After that Marty did his homework figuring it would pass the time. And when he ran out of homework to do he took a book off his shelf and started reading.   
Normally he would've listened to his tapes whilst doing this but he had to be ready to jump at the door if someone wanted to open it since he was hiding a big dog. When Marty reached chapter 7 of the book he closed it and listened.   
The house was dead quiet. Einstein lifted his head from Marty's leg, where he had placed it a few hours ago and listened as well. Marty put the book down on the lower shelf of his nightstand, on top of the dog-eared phone book he'd used that morning. He looked up and checked the time on his radio-clock. 1:45 AM. Perfect. Marty got up from his bed and gathered his sneakers, put on his jacket and pulled the body warmer over it.

Marty walked up to his window and silently attempted to open it. He got it open relatively silently, but it wanted to slide down. Marty caught it, wincing when the scabs on his hand got ripped open by the rough wood. When the window was properly opened he clambered through it and grabbed Einstein roughly, pulled him outside and dropped him on the grass. The dog immediately lifted his leg to take a piss and Marty couldn't blame him. The dog hadn't touched grass in ten hours. Awkwardly hunched below his window Marty waited for the dog to finish his business.

When that was dealt with the dog and teen duo snuck through the garden, Einstein had apparently realized he was supposed to be silent and followed Marty closely.

Lifting a dog over a fence by yourself wasn't easy. It was, in fact, sort of impossible unless he would throw the dog over, which Marty wasn't going to do. So this time he opened up the gate with his key and left it open whilst he walked off. He would've loved to take the truck to Doc's spare garage but opening the garage, starting the car and driving off would see him stopped by his parents or siblings, probably all of them, and maybe a neighbor also.

Instead, Marty grabbed Dave's bike again, not feeling up to the task of skating multiple miles without tailgating. Einstein quickly fell into step beside Marty's bike and the duo traveled in silence for a long while. The activity kept Marty's mind sharp and his temperature comfortable and without any trouble, Marty reached the storage rental unit within half an hour.

Marty threw his bike down next to the tall chain link fence and walked around the grounds. After completing a circle he had counted 4 camera's and had found a blind spot. He walked another half circle toward it and turned to Einstein. Marty placed one finger in front of his lips and the dog plopped down onto the dewy grass. Doc had taken the time to teach the dog silent commands. Marty hadn't known why, before now.   
Marty Thanked Doc silently for taking dog training this seriously. He gave the dog one last pat. “Wish me luck boy.”

Marty turned towards the fence and took a deep breath. He felt so nervous about this that his heart was already pounding, but he grabbed the fence anyway and started climbing. Once he reached the top he hopped one leg over and dropped down onto the concrete, low on his knees. He turned cautiously and ran to the closest stack of containers and hid in the shadows while he caught his breath. On the other side of the fence, Einstein was parallel to Marty, keeping a close eye on his other-master. Marty couldn't be sure but he felt like the dog knew he was doing something he could get in trouble for.

Next Marty looked around both sides of the container and hoped that the area in front of him was as unsupervised as he thought. Marty took a cautious sprint toward the wall of the building and pressed up against it. He waited for a few seconds, listening for any noise. He didn't hear anything.

Marty started walking towards the space he knew was Doc's. He knew he didn't have a key to get in, which is why he was doing this in the middle of the night to begin with. The few times he'd been here with Doc he had to show his key before they let him in and they had been escorted to the right garage door by an employee. Doc had chosen the place because he felt he could safely store a time machine here but now Marty was dealing with the consequences.

Above all, Marty was just happy the DeLorean hadn't been in Doc's home/garage when it blew up. It took Marty quite some time to reach the right garage. He had to move slowly and this place was pretty big, but eventually, he found the right door, or so he hoped. Marty had only been here a handful of times in broad daylight, and they'd been escorted in. But he was pretty good with numbers and he was pretty sure that meant he was at the right door.

Marty realized he was in huge trouble already because he was going to break through this garage door, then break into the DeLorean and after that, he also had to hotwire the car or something to get it working. Marty was going to beg for a spare chain of keys when this was all over.

Marty took another deep breath to settle himself and then took a small hammer he had packed specifically for this from his jacket pocket.   
He grabbed hold of the padlock on the outside of the garage door. With one hand he applied pressure to one side of the lock and with the hammer, he tapped the other side a few times. After only a handful of taps, the lock popped open and Marty removed it from the door and dropped it on the ground. Looking over his shoulder at the fence behind him, Marty saw that Einstein was still looking at him from a distance. Marty nodded at the dog, unsure whether the dog would actually see it or not. Marty hunched and pulled the door up from the ground in one swoop. At this point, an alarm went off.

Marty started and cursed. He had expected this to happen, but he had really hoped it wouldn't. He hated Doc and his need to store his time machine in a safe location. Marty didn't waste any more time and ran into the space. The DeLorean was parked in the middle of the garage, facing the door. If Marty could get in and get the car started he could drive out of there at top speed. In his panic, Marty pulled at the door handle. Of course, the door was locked.

Marty took a long hard look at the car. He knew that you could break into a car by breaking a window, but when traveling four-dimensionally thing could get very cold and the idea of freezing between two points in time wasn't very alluring.

Instead, Marty began to fidget with the keyhole with anything he had on hand. Doc had taught him some tricks to bypass locks before, but they didn't seem to be working right now. Marty wasn't that practiced in breaking and entering.

Marty was distracted from his desperate lock-picking when he heard two men yell at him. He looked up from the car's door and _holy shit_ those guys are huge. Huge and very mad. They came running towards Doc's storage unit at high speed.

Einstein started barking loudly from behind the fence, the dog had started jumping up against it the moment the alarm had started blaring. The two security officers stopped dead in their tracks, and turned towards the dog, it took them only a few seconds to realize the dog was behind the fence and couldn't actually attack them. Not that Einstein actually would, he was a horrible guard dog, but the security employees didn't know that and they didn't have to.

Once the men turned away from the dog and stared back at Marty the teen was in a full blown panic. He gave up on fidgeting and started banging the lock with his fist. “Please open!” He screamed desperately at the car's door. And in that moment the most amazing thing happened. The car complied.

“Door unlocking of [Marty McFly]. Please drive safely [Marty Mcfly.]” The door spoke with awkward pauses between each word like every word was pre-recorded separately. Marty stared at the door in amazement, but only for a moment, because there were two dangerous and aggressive men running at him. Marty pulled the door open completely, hopped into the car and closed the door. He locked the door as soon as it was closed. Marty grabbed the steering wheel and begged that this would work. “Engine start,” Marty screamed, his voice had gone shrill and he didn't sound convinced this would work at all.   
It did work.

Marty felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head when all the car's displays lighted up and the engine came to life. Marty hit the gas. The first few feet he drove over the concrete at the guards gaining speed quickly. The two men that had been chasing him dove out of the path of the car screaming and hit the ground. Marty checked his rear view mirror, though the men looked extremely mad they didn't appear wounded when they started crawling back up from where they had flailed onto the ground.

Marty then pulled a trigger behind the steering wheel and the car lifted of the ground in one smooth motion. Once the car was high enough it stopped rising and glided forward over the fence and sped into the dark night. Marty's heart ached as he watched Einstein chasing the car over the grass.   
The dog couldn't keep up.   
Marty swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat at that sight and set those feelings aside. He was going to fix this, and what had just happened wasn't going to happen at all. Einstein was going to be safe in Doc's garage. Marty looked away from the starry night in front of him and turned to the flux capacitor. He finally turned it on. Next, he turned towards the time input panel and carefully pressed the buttons on the display to set the time.

 

Saturday, May 10 – 1986

11.30 PM

 

Marty went through his Saturday in his head. He had spent the afternoon and evening at Doc's place. Marty had played a few tunes on his guitar, they had eaten some soggy burgers and then they'd talked till late at night. Neither of them had realized how late it had gotten till Doc's clocks had chimed, telling the two men who had settled on the couch it was ten in the evening. Marty had been laying back on the couch, his legs over Doc's lap and one hand draped over Doc's finger. Their fingers had simply lain on top of each other, the only holding they were doing was doc's thumb rubbing over Marty's fingers.

At the first chime, Doc had craned his neck to check the clocks before he had gasped loudly before reciting the time in shock. Marty had jumped up from the couch in one movement and had stepped into his shoes. “My parents won't be happy Doc!” Marty had pulled his jacket from a pile of junk as quickly as possible while Doc had put Marty's guitar in its case. “You should take this home!” Marty had grabbed the case and sprinted toward the door with Doc in hot pursuit.

“I shall call your parents and inform them you are on your way, that will settle their nerves.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

Marty had turned in front of the door, grabbed Doc's ugly shirt and pulled him down. Doc had a habit of hunching and because of this being pulled down was almost no effort for Marty.   
Marty still tried to extend his length as much as possible and so the two men collided midway. Marty in such a rush he didn't mind his teeth banging into Doc's. Doc had been the more relaxed one in this situation and after the collision, he had wrapped his arms around Marty and steadied him. In the end, the kiss was chaste and sweet. When they stepped back in synch Doc had stared into Marty's eyes and saw himself in their clear reflection. A soft smile had spread across both their faces and Doc didn't have the self-restrain not to press his hand against Marty's cheek.

“So I'll see you tomorrow, future boy?”

“You betcha Doc.”

For a few more beats the two men stood completely still, simply marveling in each others presence. Then, after that short eternity between the two of them was over Doc pulled his hand back from Marty's warm cheek and stuffed it in his pocket.

“Goodnight Marty.”

“Sleep tight, Doc.”

Marty had turned back toward the door calmly and left through it, he walked past the chain link fence and locked it behind him. Then the young man started skateboarding back towards the house he lived in with his parents.

Doc had watched him till he rounded the corner and had then turned back inside, pulled the phone receiver off the wall, pressed it against his ear and had typed the Mcfly residence's number without looking at the number pad. After a moment he was answered.

“Hello, Lorraine? Yes, good evening to you too. I'm just giving you a call to tell you Marty is on his way home.” Doc had stayed on the phone with Marty's mother till the teen had come home. Lorraine and Doc had exchanged casual conversation. Marty's mother had wanted to know about the homework Doc had been helping Marty with and next Doc had asked Lorraine about George's new book.

\---

Marty had arrived home around half past ten that evening. It now felt like it had been years ago. So much had happened since then. Marty checked the time input panel one last time. The flux capacitor had enough energy to make the trip and the car was cruising at a steady pace. Marty increased his speed. His eyes on the machinery and when the car got close to hitting 88 mph Marty felt a familiar sensation before a white flash almost blinded him. Marty reduced speed and let the car hovering in the middle of the air for a while. He blinked the white spots from his vision. He should have put on his sunglasses.

Marty checked the time panel again. The current time panel told him the date: May 10, 1986. Marty sighed. He had successfully traveled back in time.


	5. Reset

Saturday, May 10 – 1986

11.30 PM

 

The first five minutes after the four-dimensional leap Marty spend with his forehead against the steering wheel. In his head he replayed the last hour, not believing he came out unscathed. At least no more than he already was.   
Marty didn't even want to think about what those security gorillas would have done to him if they'd caught him. Marty lifted his forehead from the steering wheel and looked up at the starry sky, still hunched forward in his seat.

He sat at an awkward angle unable to properly fill the seat as it sat now. Doc had been the one to bring the car to its storage location, so the seat was still set to Doc's lengthy legs. Marty pulled a lever and wiggled the seat forward.

Now that he was able to sit back and also reach the pedals he relaxed and willed himself to get going. It took another minute before Marty grabbed the clutch to get the car actually moving.

Marty flew the car back to an abandoned road and touched down before he calmly drove into Hill Valley. He didn't want to park the time machine in front of Doc's place so he parked around the corner, got out, and looked at the car. He didn't have a key, but since he had begged the car to open and it had responded, he figured he would try that again. “DeLorean, lock the door.”

His voice cracked halfway through the simple request because Marty felt incredibly ridiculous talking to a car in the middle of the night but the car's lights flashed twice and the female robotic voice spoke to him.

“This vehicle is now locked, have a nice day. [Marty Mcfly].”

“Thank you.”

The car did not respond. Marty stepped backward, looking at the car and wondering if it was going to do any other crazy future shit, but the car stayed put.  
Marty turned on his heels and leisurely made his way to the place he wished he could call home. When Marty reached the high chain-link fence he noticed the garage was dark. Either Doc was asleep or he was sitting around in the dark or he wasn't home anymore. Marty decided the best way to find out was to just go in and find out.

After climbing over the fence, grabbing the key from underneath the welcome mat and opening the door with said key Marty peeked inside. “Hello? Doc? Einie?” Marty whistled. The dark room remained silent. Marty flipped the light switch, and several fluorescent ceiling lights popped on, revealing a garage full of junk but without any humans or dogs inside. Marty concluded that Doc must be out taking Einstein on his late-night walk. Marty closed the door behind him and found the nicest chair in the garage and sat down. After spending a minute tapping his foot and looking at the familiar surroundings Marty got back up from the chair. Till he was sure he wasn't going to be caught up in an explosion Marty felt he couldn't just sit down and wait around.

Marty strolled over to the corner and inspected the pile of junk occupying that corner. The pile existed out of books (which burn great) a fax machine that was plugged in and working and a bunch of paper burger king cups sitting on top of it. The cups were filled with nuts, bolts and little parts from machines that were taken apart between 1 week and 20 years ago. Marty couldn't make heads or tails of this mess, but Doc somehow never lost anything, except his shoes, which were often stolen by Einstein. Marty was inspecting a medium size BK cup that still smelled too strongly of Pepsi to have been washed out when he heard the door behind him. Marty turned around, cup still in hand and found Doc looking at him. The man had a concerned look on his face whilst Einstein was delighted that Mart had returned. Einstein bounced over to the teen happily and Marty kneeled down to pet him. Marty opened his arms for the dog to leap into. After leaving Einstein behind in the future Marty somehow felt he owed the dog.

“Marty, what are you doing here, it's getting close to midnight? Is something wrong at home?” Marty resisted the urge to tell Doc he WAS home right at that moment and got up off the floor, sending Einstein to his bed with a simple hand movement. Once Marty looked up at Doc he saw Doc's expression go from concerned to horrified. Marty saw Doc's eyes focus on his battered face, then on the scabs on Marty's hands and then the bruises that had bloomed on Marty's skin. The man took large steps and stormed over to Marty at an alarming pace. Marty stood his ground and let Doc come to him.

He grabbed Marty by the shoulders and held him at arm's length, his grip tight in case Marty attempted to escape. His intense brown eyes swept over the teen's face, taking in the cuts and scrapes that adorned his face. The ugly bruise Marty had on his shoulder that had started to shift color to that ugly purple-yellow color combo was revealed when Doc had gripped the teen. Marty could see the horror on Docs face. Marty attempted to catch Doc's gaze but the man's focus was on Marty's damaged skin. Marty stayed silent while Doc took it all in. It took almost a minute of awkward standing around for Marty. When the man had cataloged all of Marty's injuries in his head he spoke:

“What happened, who did this to you?” Doc attempted to speak clearly, but his voice had a distinctly panicky edge.

The grip on Marty's shoulders changed now that Doc's demand to investigate the teen had been satiated. Doc wrapped his arms around Marty and pulled him close slowly and protectively. Marty melted into Doc's embrace. His arms settled on Doc lower back and Marty pressed his cheek against Doc's collar bone. When Doc's chin settled on the crown of Marty's head the teen sighed and smiled.

Being held by Doc lifted an enormous weight of Marty's shoulders. Mary had done it. He'd gone back in time and he was so close to preventing disaster. Doc would know what to do from now on and together they could fix this. A feeling of peace spread through Marty now that he was no longer solving this conundrum on his own.

“Doc. I came back from the future.” Marty could feel Doc get ready to ask him a million questions, so he quickly continued, not giving Doc a chance to interrupt him. “Tomorrow I'll come over like we planned accept something goes wrong and the garage catches fire! There is an explosion Doc!” Marty heard Doc gasp, but the man stayed silent so that Marty could continue.

“We ran out, all 3 of us and the place exploded. You get taken to the hospital Doc, and they want to put you in jail, and I can never see you again, and nobody can take care of Einstein, and all your work was ruined Doc! The entire garage was gone!” Marty had started rambling, his voice cracking and wavering. He hadn't even noticed it himself until Doc shook him gently and he fell silent. Marty snapped his mouth shut and looked up. Doc was looking down at him, the look in his eyes already betraying that his brain was working at 88 miles an hour. The hand that had been on Marty's back rubbed him slightly. Marty could feel Doc's individual fingers gliding across the fabric of his jacket.

Marty let doc guide him to the couch where they sat down together.

“Tell me everything that happened. As detailed as possible. Please.”

Over the next half hour, Marty told Doc everything that was going to happen in the next few days if they didn't stop it from doing so and doc listened, asking only a few questions. At the end of it, Marty had described his entire morning at Doc's house up to the explosion and his adventures in the days that followed. He explained that he hadn't figured out what had caused the explosion and that he hadn't heard, seen or smelled anything strange.

When he was done Doc got up and grabbed him a bottle of water. Marty sipped it in silence whilst he watched Doc think. Looking at the genius racking his brain was always amazing to Marty, Doc would walk random circles through the garage, his arms moving, and his lips having silent conversations with himself. Marty watched Doc till he rounded a corner and disappeared behind the giant amplifier, it wouldn't take long till Doc would pop up again in Marty's field of view.

Then It occurred to Mary that the water he was drinking was probably the same water he had been drinking before the explosion and he looked at the bottle for a moment. The thought that he had pissed out this water before and was drinking it again now made him chuckle.

Doc, who had turned around to inspect the explosive corner of the garage turned to him and lifted an eyebrow. Marty shook his head and put the water bottle down on the table before he got up.

“Do you know what caused the explosion?”

“I am going to be honest with you Marty, there are so many explosive and flammable components here that I do not know which one is the cause.”

“So what can we do to stop the explosion?”

“Something I should have done a long time ago Marty. I'm going to have to clean this up and reorganize. Right now.”

Marty's eyebrows rose and he looked at the corner, there was a lot of shit there. Everything was stacked up in weird ways. There were machines and magazines and trash and even some furniture.

“The entire corner?”

“The entire garage Marty.”

If Marty had brought the bottle of water with him he would've spilled it all over the floor right there and then.

“Doc there is over 40 years of shit in this garage!”

“And I'm going to sort it all Marty! I'll spend the entire night doing it if it means I'll protect you from an explosion.” Doc grabbed a box from the top of the stack then and set it on the floor.

“Alright. I'll help you.”

Doc turned from where he was kneeling and was about to decline Marty's offer to assist when Marty grabbed another item and pulled it out of the stack.

“There is too much shit here for you to do this alone in a short period of time. I want to help. I came back to fix this and I will.”

Doc regarded the boy for a moment before he nodded. “Alright, Marty. Start out by clearing a space on the floor. We'll work in sections.”

The duo set to work. The corner was taken apart till only an empty wall remained. Any liquids were inspected, labeled or thrown away. When necessary, substances were poured into more suitable containers. Machine parts were sorted and books were stacked to be placed into a bookshelf later.

Once one section was taken apart they moved onto the next one. Not a single square feet of the garage was skipped, not even Doc's kitchen and bathroom. (There was a surprising amount of explosive materials found between shaving creams and tooth pastes.)

Around four in the morning the garage had completed its transformation To the untrained eye it would still look like a dump, but to Marty and Doc, there was an amazing amount of improvement. There was more floor space available and nothing looked like it was about to topple over. Doc had found things he hadn't seen in 10 years, including his saxophone, which was now banged up and unusable. Next to the door, they'd made a pile of useless items that were to be disposed of and over the course of several hours it grew to a considerable size. Marty had looked at Doc as the man had put his saxophone on the pile, they had looked at the instrument together and determined it couldn't be repaired. Despite this knowledge, it stung to see the once shiny object in the pile of trash.

At some point during the night, Doc had started clearing out and cleaning up his kitchen cabinets. Marty had stepped away then and he had started cleaning. The floor was swept (Doc didn't own any working vacuums) the kitchen was scrubbed and Marty had even done some dusting.

When Doc had gotten up from the floor next to one of his cabinets and had exclaimed that he now considered it impossible for the garage to explode within the next 24 hours Marty put down his sponge. They had been quietly working in opposite corners of the garage, too tired to hold a conversation like they had most of the evening.

Without speaking another word they met next to the bed and both started taking off several items of clothing such as shoes, jeans, shirts and an uneven number of socks. Doc flopped down on his preferred side of the bed and kicked the blankets down. He fluffed his pillow and rolled on his side towards the other side of the bed.

Marty walked around the bed and pulled at the blankets and slipped under them. He grabbed the other pillow and mushed it towards the middle of the bed. Within twenty seconds the duo had found a comfortable sleeping position.

Doc hadn't even thought about his actions when he wrapped one arm around Marty and pulled him in close. Marty already had his eyes closed but he settled his face into the space below Doc's chin despite his need for sleep. Marty mumbled a sleepy "good night" against Doc's skin and drifted off.

Doc moved slightly to switch off the lights before returning to his place in their arrangement. He also sighed, tired but satisfied with how big a change they had made to this space together. Despite Doc doing most of the sorting, it felt as if Marty had left a hand print on the decor of Doc's home.

Doc pressed his nose into Marty's hair, the teen smelled familiar but a little more dusty than he was used to. Underneath the earthy smell of dust, Doc shamelessly enjoyed the smell of fabric softener, sweat, and shampoo. Smells he had grown to love. He was too tired to tell himself he shouldn't allow himself this contact, so he closed his eyes and breathed in deep and clung to Marty in a way that felt too familiar for how little he allowed himself to be this close to Marty.

Doc pressed his face into Marty's wild hair one last time, his lips against the teen's scalp in a way that would have been a kiss if he had taken the time to purse his lips.   
Doc shifted his head for easy breathing and settled. He let his muscles relax and fell asleep in seconds, vaguely registering that Einstein had hopped on top of the bed and had settled on Marty's end of the bed.

 

\-----------

Sunday, May 11 - 1986

7.34 AM

 

Marty blinked blearily. Early morning sunlight filtered in through the blinds, coloring the garage in a yellowish light. Dust particles drifted peacefully through the air above Marty's head. Marty wasn't usually woken by the morning light. he was a belly sleeper, his face was usually pressed into his pillow when he woke, but this morning the teen found himself in an unusual position. On his back.

Sometime during the few hours they'd slept, Marty had escaped from below Doc's chin. His head rested in the middle of a slightly too flat pillow. Doc had traveled a lot in his sleep, the man had somehow ended up facing Marty's hip. Doc had one arm thrown around Marty, but instead of his waist, the long and lanky appendage was wrapped around one of Marty's thighs. Doc's face was pressed against Marty's side trapping Marty in this position and making it impossible for him to sleep on his side or belly. Marty inspected the man currently cuddling up with his leg.

The same sunlight that had woken Marty was casting a golden halo around Doc's wild hair. A shadow fell over the man's face, hiding his features. One of Doc's legs was dangling over the edge of the bed and Marty noticed he was still wearing one sock.

A smile spread over Marty's face, he wasn't really aware of it happening. Seeing Doc in such a relaxed state was always unusual but combined with the strangely angelic lighting the scene Marty saw before him felt almost otherworldly.

The man was snoring softly and Marty could feel Doc's warm breath travel down his leg. When Doc was in the hospital Marty had been sure 'calm' and 'Doc' didn't mix and never should. But now, seeing the man painted by the morning sunlight, curled up in just his boxers and an undershirt, he looked completely at ease.   
Marty lifted his arm from where it had been sprawled out across Doc's mattress and gently moved his fingers to doc's head, playing with Doc's surprisingly soft hair. Doc's breath stocked for a moment and then his expression changed. His face, which had been completely relaxed warped to one of the ridiculous expressions Doc had in his enormous arsenal of weird expressions.  
Doc blinked, his brown eyes adjusting to the light before lifting his head from Marty's side and gaping at Marty drearily. For a moment the two men just looked at each other.

Marty looked at Doc surrounded by a golden aura of morning light, dust particles swirling around his head.

Doc looked up at Marty, the young man's face and shirt were colored golden by the morning sun. Marty's intelligent eyes caught the light making them seem almost silver.

Marty kept smiling as Doc stared him down, apparently enraptured by the sight before him.

“Morning Doc.” Marty's voice was still raspy with sleep and his greeting had barely been audible because of this. Doc didn't respond, still enraptured by the scene before him. After a moment he blinked and worked his jaw. Doc swallowed his first attempt at a response, his throat also feeling coarse with sleep.

Doc carefully dislodged his arm from Marty's leg and he crawled more towards the pillow, his legs finally occupying the mattress again. He lay back down on his pillow. After at least five seconds Doc registered what Marty had said.

“Morning.” Doc looked around the garage, temporarily disoriented by the cleaned up garage in daylight. When he found his wall of clocks he squinted at one of them.

“What time is it?”

Marty turned his head to look at a random clock on the wall. His eye fell on an owl shaped clock.

“Around seven thirty in the morning.” Marty yawned. “We only slept for a few hours.”

“When you return to your own date it'll be night. Perhaps this is best to prevent air lag.”

“Perhaps.” Marty yawned “I should get back soon.”

“You should. Because today's you will be on the doorstep in less than two hours.”

Doc moved to sit on the edge of the bed and shook Einstein awake. With one whistle the dog jumped off the bed and went over to his own basket to settle there and continue sleeping. Doc grabbed one of his gowns from the floor and looked at it then decided it was too warm to wear it and he stood up.

“It's going to be warm today.”

“Hot.” Marty agreed, remembering the weather. “you should open the garage doors soon.” He added as an after thought.

“That hot?”

“Incredibly hot.”

“That might have been one of the reasons something inside this garage caught fire.”

“Maybe. I just remember it being hot as fuck.”

Doc grumbled and mumbled something about fixing the fan before he walked towards the bathroom. Marty got up himself and got dressed. By the time he was done, Doc was finished in the bathroom and had started collecting his own clothes. Marty pulled open a few of Doc's kitchen cabinets, still not used to them being sorted.

“Cornflakes or eggs?” He called over at Doc, who was sniffing the Hawaiian shirt he was going to end up wearing.

“Eggs, please.”

Marty made the eggs. After he carried them over to the table they ate in silence and Marty collected all his stuff. Doc was already waiting for him at the door when he got there. Before the door got pulled open they shared a tight hug.

“We can discuss this when you get back to Tuesday. Feel free to come by after school. I'll be very happy to see you without all those nasty scabs and bruises.”

“I will.” Marty squeezed Doc one last time before he stepped back.”

“I'll see you in the future, Doc.”

Doc put his hand on Marty's shoulder and shook him gently.

“Time to go, future boy.”

Marty smiled and wrapped one arm around the man's waist one last time. He pressed his face against Doc's neck and left a chaste kiss there before he opened the door and stepped out, past the gate and back towards the DeLorean which opened its doors when Marty asked it to. Marty hadn't even taken the time to look at Doc one last time before he stepped out the door. He had been aware of Doc's eyes on him till he rounded the corner but he hadn't seen the shift in Doc expression when the man had felt Marty's lips press against the skin just above the collar of his shirt.

Five minutes later Marty was looking at the starry night sky of Monday night again. Marty parked the car close to Doc's garage. He figured they could return it to its storage location later. He couldn't exactly return the car without Doc there or in the middle of the night. When he stepped out of the car the door locked and Marty rounded to corner finding the garage completely intact. There wasn't a single sign of an explosion or even a fire. Marty hopped around on the tarmac in celebration before turning and making his way home. Since he was on foot it took him a while, but at two in the morning he returned home and snuck back into his room through his window. Marty somehow felt like he hadn't used his bedroom door in ages. Marty stripped of his clothes and went to bed.

When he woke in the morning he got up automatically and got dressed. Whilst Marty brushed his teeth he noticed the bruises and scabs that had decorated his face and body had vanished. He ate breakfast with Linda and then went to school.

Marty followed his classes and struggled his way through conversations and classes about Monday. He hadn't actually been to school on Monday, but since there was no explosion in this time line Marty had followed classes like normal. He just didn't have any memories to match yet. Aside from this, his morning was without interesting events. After school, Marty went back to Doc's garage where Doc hopped up from his work when Marty came in.

“We did it, Marty! Safe and sound! We've restored the time line to an alternative state where we can continue our lives as normal.”

“Yeah.” Marty agreed, accepting Doc's hug after he'd closed the garage door behind him. A dorky smile spread across his face when he felt Doc press a kiss against the top of his head.

 

“Normal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I had a blast writing this.


End file.
